BES to soon house all district offices

The upper elementary won't be the only one in the Baldwin School District moving this fall.

The offices from the district office and the district directors center will be moving into the Baldwin Elementary School when the third through fifth grades move to the new elementary school along U.S. Highway 56.

"I think it will benefit us a great deal by allowing better communication," Supt. James White said. "I think if we can get administrative offices to the second floor of the elementary building, it will be a nice area to work from. It pulls all of the different services to one location."

The move of the upper elementary grades will free up some space, mainly the second and third floors of the older section of BES.

The offices will occupy the second floor. White said the third floor could be used for storage or possibly offices for other agencies. The basement will continue to be used for the school's art, technology, lunch and preschool.

The elementary students and all of their classrooms, including the library, will be housed in the east end of BES.

He said it would be disappointing to lose the current elementary school library, but the district wanted to consolidate all of the elementary rooms into the east side of the building to make them more accessible.

He also said a library that size wouldn't be needed anymore once half the school had moved out.

The vacated district directors center, which is across the street from BES, won't remain empty, White said.

"The plan that seems to be the most appealing at this time is to let the special education coop occupy the building," he said.

The special education coop is currently located downtown.

The district office will also continue to be used. White said the space will probably be used as classrooms for the Baldwin High School's vocational classes.

He said using the district office space for wrestling had also been discussed.

"We haven't thrown that out," he said. "That certainly could be a possibility."

Once the new upper elementary school is built, White said space restrictions in the district shouldn't be much of a problem.

"That should pretty much take care of our space needs for awhile, with the exception of wrestling," he said. "We're still working on that."

But White said plans could always change.

"We don't know exactly what the final plan will be yet," he said. "But this is how we kind of see it right now."

The plan was arrived at by administrators. Although it has been discussed at school board meetings, there has been no vote taken on the changes.